So far so good.
I planted from seed.
God knows what the neighbors did.
I hear it travels over a quarter mile.
sorry to hear that Paula.
hopefully it's under control
Laura

This is an alarm to the public to grow their plants from seed.

It's also an alarm to the public to be prepared for problems in their gardens.

I live on an island, humidity happens. And it happens the worst during summer. I was getting taken to bank at Home Depot with buying spray bottles of fungicide every week. I got smart and ordered several pounds of Serenade powder from the manufacturer. Now I mix my own solution and spray it on every week. The powder will last me several years.

I just pulled 2 plants with blight out of my garden, my MIL just had to have sore bought plants because my WS one's were small *head shake* The extra's went in my veggie bed, never again.

I guess that is what is wrong with my plants too. they are pretty much dead. I started them all from seed. But my neighbor bought hers. Maybe that is how I got it. Now I am wondering if it will be in the ground and affect next years garden? Also wondering if I should even keep the seeds I have saved so far or throw them out?

Gardencrazy, did you wash the gel off the seed with bleach-based abrasive cleaner? That should kill the fungus, I think, from the seeds. I can't help with the soil. Maybe solarize it somehow?

Blight is bad this year even for us - and we grow only from seed, grow in containers and isolate soil each year away from the tomato area, and bleach the concrete surface at the end of each growing season.

All tomato waste each year here gets processed by running it through the cow or goats before composting.

You don't need exposure to store bought plants to get blight. Some areas will always be prone to it - especially in wet years. But bringing home blight infected plants from stores or neighbors is certainly not a good way to prevent it in your garden!

For gardencrazy, you are just down the road so I'm not at all surprised that you have blight. If you don't have cows, goats or sheep to process the plant waste fully be sure to burn it. Clean all of the plant waste fully out of your garden. (Infected leaves and plants during the growing season and also all of the uninfected tomato material at the end of the season.) Let your soil clean itself after the growing season by tilling it well and letting sun and frost do their work. If your garden gets fall leaves on it, remove them so they don't hold in damp and fungus. Make sure the soil get's plenty of sun and air - rake and puff it a couple times over the non-growing season if it's not frozen.

If you grew the plants in containers, don't recycle the container compost back into the tomato area Move it to a very distant flower bed or to a far part of your land to recompost for a few years.

In some areas, blight is common and some years you'll get it no matter how much you try to prevent it. We do a good job of keeping our tomatoes blight free or treating them early if we see blight - but that doesn't change the fact that some of the wild trees and black raspberry bushes in the area have blight some years and help infect our tomatoes. And some years we actually get summer rains, the hills stay moist, and we battle blight all summer long.

Don't get rid of your seeds. Don't save them with fruit residue all over them of course, but don't panic and get rid of them.

Aside from blight, we grow our tomatoes in containers to prevent a number of problems. It helps prevent tomato hornworm because we don't plant in soil that may be holding hornworm eggs from the previous year.

Lynda

When I did my research it said the seeds from the infected tomato were safe and that the fugus or whatever it was catarg. will not transfer over the to the seed. And the ground if it freezes it should kill off the spores and be safe to plant tomatoes there next year. I think I found the link to the info on the tomato forum here on gardenweb.

Paula

I did not use a cleanser on the seeds. they are dried now. could or should I go back and try to use it now?
Thanks to everyone for your help. I was worried that I would not be able to garden in that spot next year.
I gave lots of tomato plants to a friend, that lives about 10 miles from me, this spring and his are fine and they are sending me tomatoes. so I know it was not caused from my plants. (how funny is that! ha ha ... not)

here is the link that answers some of the questions

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/aganswers/story.asp?storyID=5496

hope this helps someone.

Paula

I agree with Lynda - it doesn't have to be store-bought plants.

I WSed all my tomato plants. Despite a VERY slow start due to the rain and cool, cloudy weather, they caught up and were absolutely gorgeous - some plants were taller than me! And then I got hit with late blight. I have to rip out about 20 plants, without one single ripe tomato eaten.

Two organic farms within a mile of me had to take out their tomatoes too - and both farms grow their own plants from seed.

Depressing.

Dee

Blight is running amok here, have to pull another tomato this morning. Talked to 2 folks last night that lost alot of their plants too. One fellow had to pull over 50 plants. What an awful year, I have never ever dealt with this before.

My plants have some sort of wilt, but they are loaded with fruit. If this is blight, can I wait to harvest the fruit before I destroy the plants?

Thank goodness for winter sowing!

All tomato plants here are doing splendid! I cannot believe the production on these heirlooms....thanks again Trudi!!!

Vera

You're welcome Vera.

I'll be spraying my garden again tomorrow. Serenade does a fair enough job at controlling any problems, and so far, I'm seeing a bit of Early blight and Bacterial Speck, but that's it. (crossing fingers)

Yes, I feel lucky. No blight. But I did talk to one person who spent a week on an organic farm in Mass. They lost all their tomatoes to blight.
Very sad.
I read that corn meal is an anti-fungal agent. I put it around my tomatoes. Of course I don't know if that is why I didn't have blight.
Maybe next year more people will grow their own, than buy from a big store. Altho I know that even growing your own, you can be hit.

ellen